


5 times Charles and Erik were interrupted and 1 time they got to be alone

by lavenderlotion



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, Flirting Over a Chessboard, Fluff, Getting Back Together, Grinding, Love Confessions, M/M, Making Out, Marriage Proposal, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:07:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22902190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion
Summary: “I love you,” Erik told him, which was something that Charles had honestly never expected to hear. It rocked him, and he swayed back in his chair as it felt like his world was crumbling down around him.Charles Francis Xavier, I love you so much it terrified me, and I ran away from my terror like the scared little boy I try so, so very hard not to be.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Hank McCoy & Charles Xavier
Comments: 23
Kudos: 162





	5 times Charles and Erik were interrupted and 1 time they got to be alone

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: _”Third Wheeling”_
> 
> much, much thanks to [homosociality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociality) for helping me with this, sharing insight & pointing out lots of flaws!

**1**

Their game was illuminated by the soft glow of the fire Erik had started when he first came into Charles’ room that evening. That had been hours ago, when the sun had still been setting along the horizon. Now, the world outside Charles’ bedroom was dark and night had long since set over the mansion. Hank was the only one, alongside the two of them, that was still awake, down in the lab and working tirelessly on the suits he was creating for them all. 

Charles was just about to send him a thought to get to bed when Erik cleared his throat pointedly, leaned forward, and moved his piece. He felt a grin take over his face at Erik’s aggressive style of playing, finding himself more challenged by Erik than he’d ever been by another partner. 

“Am I boring you?” Erik asked him bluntly, though not angrily. His lips tipped into a grin that was teasing in a way that made him look endlessly handsome. 

“Never,” he promised, finding himself drawn in by the way Erik’s eyes were shining and the shadows that the fire was casting over his face. It made him look incredibly sharp, both in the cut of his cheeks and the piercing look in his eyes, and Charles found himself leaning forward before he could think of holding himself back. 

Erik’s eyes seemed endless in the firelight. His thoughts were echoing through Charles’ mind, and he was hopelessly drawn in by Erik the same way he’d been since he first delved into his mind in the water. There was something about the other man that Charles couldn’t get enough of no matter how much time they spent together. It was like a burning under his skin that was constantly craving  _ more. _

Erik was that more.

He couldn’t hold himself back as he leaned even further forward. They had been dancing towards something that neither of them felt ready for since the very moment they met. There was something undeniable between them that Charles wasn’t about to let fall away or be ignored, but he hadn’t yet found the strength within himself to bring it up. He was so certain that Erik felt it too, but Charles refused to look through his mind to find out—not when it came to something like this. 

Just as Charles was taking a shuddering breath that tasted like the gin Erik had been drinking, the door to his bedroom burst open with a bang loud enough that he startled back, knocking his knee painfully into the table their chess game was taking place on and throwing the pieces all about. Swearing sharply at the shooting pain, Charles dragged his eyes up to find Hank standing in the doorway with a manic smile on his face and Alex’s vest in his hand. 

“Charles!” Hank exclaimed guilelessly, clearly having no idea what he just interrupted. His voice was filled with the same youthful enthusiasm it always rose with when he was talking about one of his inventions. It was endearing enough that some of Charles’ irritation melted away as he took in the boy’s flushed cheeks and happy grin. 

“What is it, Hank?” he asked as politely as he could, even if part of him agreed with the nasty thoughts Erik was sending his way in a bid to force him to tell Hank to leave. 

Charles cut his eyes to him before looking up at Hank, who jumped into an explanation on radiation that Charles didn’t understand completely, seeing as his own field of specialty was genetic mutation. Hank kept going, gesturing wildly with his hands in a way that all but threw around the suit he was holding as his voice raised in his excitement until he was nearly shouting, talking so quickly that Charles had to focus to keep up. 

Suddenly, “I’ll be in the washroom,” cut from Erik’s mouth with so much acid in his words that Hank’s rambling cut off in such an abrupt way that Charles sent a nasty frown towards Erik. He was disappointed as well, but he wasn’t going to be rude to his friend when he was so excited. 

“You do that,” Charles told him sourly, focusing back on Hank and doing his very best to remember where the boy had cut off so he could start him back up.

When he looked, Hank’s face was flushed a dark scarlet and his voice was quiet when he asked, “I interrupted a moment, didn’t I?”

Charles felt his own face heating up and studiously ignored the flush he knew he was bound to be sporting, telling himself it was only the wine he’d drunk warming him up. “You...may have,” Charles admitted lightly, smiling kindly when Hank winced. 

“Crap, I’m sorry about that,” Hank told him seriously, and his genuineness echoed through his thoughts. 

Charles gave him another smile and said, “How about in the morning I come down to the lab so you can really explain to me what you’ve done. I’d love to learn more about what went into the suit.”

Hank’s eyes lit back up behind his glasses, and Charles felt himself relaxing knowing that his friend’s feelings weren’t too terribly hurt. Hank agreed, smiling at him and wishing him a good night. He left, closing the door to Charles’ room behind him and leaving him in a silence that was tense for how empty it was. 

Taking a deep breath, Charles pushed himself from his chair with a racing heart, a smile curling his lips as he heard the shower turn on in the bathroom. Well, if Erik wasn’t going to come out, Charles would just have to go get him. 

**2**

Charles gasped as Erik’s hands tightened their hold on his hips, grinding their erections together. Moving his head to the side, he moaned when Erik bit into his neck and worried the skin with his teeth. He was going to have a terrible bruise but not a single part of him cared. In fact, Charles didn’t care about anything other than the way Erik was all but fucking him against the damn bookshelf with the devilish way he was rolling his hips. 

_ “Kiss me,” _ Charles growled, getting a hand in Erik’s short hair and twisting his fingers through the strands so he could harshly tug Erik’s hair back before licking his way into his mouth. Their tongues twisted together, lips mashing harshly as Charles pressed closer and closer, using the arm he had thrown over Erik’s shoulder to keep him in place. 

His cock was straining painfully inside his pants, pressing against the metal teeth of his zipper and stinging with a sharp cut of pain that wasn’t yet entirely unpleasant. He took his hand from Erik’s hair as they kissed to press it against his chest, pushing him backwards and following him step for step, not needing to open his eyes or look to get them across the room and push Erik onto the couch that sat there. 

With a grin, Charles followed him down, straddling Erik’s waist and grinding his ass against the man’s erection. Erik kissed him, eyes closing in pleasure as his face slackened, and Charles leaned in to kiss his eyelids before ghosting his mouth over his cheeks, across his stubble, sucking on the jut of his jaw before licking down his neck. 

Erik’s hands pushed their way into the back of his pants, making space for himself where there truly wasn’t any. Charles groaned for the way it tightened the pressure against his dick, taking a moment to breathe damply against the side of Erik’s neck. Just as the sting of pain was switching from pleasurably sharp to being so sharp it was bordering on unpleasurable, his button popped open and his zipper lowered, blissfully reliving the too-tight pressure and causing him to moan. 

_ Gorgeous control, _ Charles complimented, moving back to working over the skin of Erik’s neck and smiling smugly to himself as he left behind a string of dark, purpled bruises, shining with his saliva. 

_ Darwin’s alive! _ Alex projected so strongly that Charles fell off Erik’s lap and dropped to the floor. Groaning, Charles rubbed his lower back as he tried to focus on Alex’s stream of consciousness as it battered around his mind, attention focused both on his still-throbbing cock and the pain radiating from his ass.

“Charles, are you alright?” Erik’s face was painted with deep concern. Charles nodded and held up a finger, closing his eyes as he pushed into himself into Alex’s senses and— “Darwin’s alive,” he breathed, eyes shooting up as he took in the shocked look that had fallen over Erik’s face. “Erik, Darwin’s alive!”

Erik jumped to his feet, reaching down and tugging Charles up. They took half a moment to get themselves more presentable and get Charles’ buttons done up before they were rushing out of the room, arousal forgotten. 

**3**

Charles’ chair felt limiting as he sat in it, hands folded in his lap. He did his best to look indifferent but wasn’t quite sure just how well he was succeeding, considering his mind felt as though it were running a thousand different directions all at once. He was seeing Erik for the very first time since the other man had left him alone on that godforsaken beach, bloodied and heartbroken and wondering how he’d ever convinced himself that Erik loved him. 

That had been months ago. Now, Charles was able to manoeuvre himself in his chair almost effortlessly. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as easy as walking, but he figured that was a given. Adjusting to anything so life-altering would have been challenging, and Charles rather thought that he was doing relatively well considering he had lost both his sister and his lover on the same awful day he lost his legs. 

Well. Charles had never claimed that he wasn’t bitter, now had he? 

Just as he was wondering after his sanity, Charles’ mind lit up with awareness mere milliseconds before Erik appeared in front of him in a rather dramatic puff of smoke, holding onto the red teleporter that had once wiped out an entire CIA base while terrifying the young men and women they had gathered up and considered something of their students during the weeks they had all trained together. 

Charles thought it was quite disgraceful that Erik and Raven were working with him now, though he supposed he understood why Raven would want to. Before they’d recruited Angel, Raven had never met another soul with a physical mutation that was so outstanding—and even Angel’s wings were rather disguisable, the way they folded up against her skin. Charles didn’t need to read his sister's mind to know how she felt and even now that they weren’t together he still considered that to be true. 

So, Charles guessed he understood why they were working with him, but he didn’t like it. He liked it even less when Erik and the red-skinned man began speaking to each other in a low tone and another language, blocking Charles from having any understanding as to what was going on as Erik was forcing himself to  _ think _ in that language as well, no matter how much difficulty he was having. 

Goodness, he hadn’t gotten any nicer, had he? Doing his best to maintain a polite but non-smiling mien, Charles continued sitting—it wasn’t like he could stand and walk away, was it?—and kept his thoughts carefully focused on everyone in the mansion, hoping against hope that none of them would notice what was going on out front as he hadn’t exactly told any of them that Erik was coming for a visit. 

_ Finally, _ the red-skinned fellow bid his goodbyes and left them alone. It didn’t do much to improve the overall atmosphere surrounding the two of them since Charles didn’t speak and Erik didn’t speak and they kept just staring at one another. Charles was still aware of Erik’s surface thoughts but didn’t feel like delving any deeper knowing that he would probably be unwanted. 

Finally, Erik let out a whooshing sigh as if he was being incredibly inconvenienced even though  _ he  _ was the one just showing up, and Charles finally allowed a sneer to cross his lips. 

“Hello, Charles,” Erik greeted, his voice sounding exactly as Charles remembered but had never wanted to hear again. It tugged at his heart, because he was a weak, weak man, and he both wanted to break down into tears and choke Erik to death. 

He did neither. Rather, he inclined his head and said, “I see that waiting for a response to your letter was too much for you to handle?”

“You know I’m impatient,” Erik told him lightly, as if he hadn’t written a letter  _ advising  _ Charles of his presence in two days time. Charles had written a letter back,  _ of course, _ but clearly, Erik had either not received it or completely disregarded Charles scathing reply telling him that he was absolutely not to show up.

Clearly, that hadn’t worked. 

“What are you doing here?” Charles asked, his voice coming out sounding far more tired than the angry tone he’d been aiming for. 

Erik looked down at him—considerably more so than he’d ever had to do so before—and Charles was once again reminded of the distance that’d formed between them. It seemed as though the space between them and the sudden change in their height was a physical representation of all that had changed in just a few short hours and it...Charles didn’t want to think about it. 

“I’d waited long enough to see you,” Erik told him, something that was near to righteousness in his tone. 

“I never forbid you from visiting, now did I, Erik?” Charles snapped, doing his very best not to feel the utter despair that had overtaken him that night on the beach when Erik had first decided that he wasn’t enough and had walked away from him. 

“I only meant that I couldn’t keep myself away any longer. I am...God, Charles, I am so sorry for what I’ve done to you,” Erik’s voice was weak, barely more than a whisper but it still sounded deafening to Charles’ ears. 

“It was an accident, I know—”

“I’m sorry for leaving you,” Erik interrupted him to say, and suddenly, it felt like the entire world was spinning. Gripping the handles on his chair, Charles tried his very best to focus on the present and calm his racing mind, 

“Erik...” Charles trailed off, entirely unsure of what he wanted to say and not knowing if any of it would even be enough. Everything that Charles had been trying his damnedest not to feel over the last few weeks was suddenly  _ right there, _ echoing through his mind and aching in his chest and making him feel breathless and light-headed. 

“I love you,” Erik told him, which was something that Charles had honestly never expected to hear. It rocked him, and he swayed back in his chair as it felt like his world was crumbling down around him.  _ Charles Francis Xavier, I love you so much it terrified me, and I ran away from my terror like the scared little boy I try so, so very hard not to be. _

When Erik stepped forward, Charles didn’t think of stopping him even if he could have. Erik wasn’t wearing the helmet and it left his mind so wondrously open, which should have been Charles’ first clue that something was bound to happen. Erik kept walking, and Charles looked through his mind and comforted himself in Erik’s own heartache, in the way the other man had been just as broken up as Charles had been by their separation. 

He didn’t want Erik to hurt. God, of course he didn’t want Erik to hurt, but it did bring him some small measure of comfort. Looking even further back, he felt Erik’s overwhelming fear at seeing Shaw that day and the way it had thrust him back into being that terrified little boy that he had spent a lifetime trying to grow out of, and how that had shaped everything else that had happened on that beach. 

Charles had thought he’d been the only one not thinking clearly, having a gash telepathically dug through his brain, but he found, now, that Erik hadn’t been in his right mind either. Charles just hadn’t been able to tell because of that godforsaken helmet, which Erik had only worn because he was so, so terrified that he hadn’t known what else to do. 

Goodness, they had both made mistakes, then. Charles couldn’t deny himself and pretend like Erik standing right before him  _ wasn’t _ filling him with an overwhelming sense of hope that felt like it was going to burst from his chest in the form of flying doves or animated hearts or something equally ridiculous. Charles took a deep breath that felt very useless for how breathless he was and then—

Well, and then Erik was kissing him. 

Charles let it happen, unable and unwilling and unwanting to do anything else. Erik’s lips felt so familiar against his own, the only difference the faint hint of lovely stubble he was sporting that felt quite nice against his chin and cupid's bow. Charles kissed back, completely void of coherent thought, so instead he pressed forward into Erik’s mind every lonely night and every terrified thought and every hope he’d ever had of or for the two of them, and their kiss tasted of an endless possibility and the salt of their tears. 

It went on and on, neither of them willing to bring it to a close. Erik’s hands were above his against the chair’s handlebars, fingers half-heartedly twisted together as their lips softly pressed together and moved against one another, exploring and re-learning after far too long apart. Through Erik’s mind, Charles could feel nothing but an overwhelming joy that was echoing back at him. Things had happened and decisions had been made, but absolutely nothing was set in stone. Charles was confident they would be able to get through this now that Erik had come back and they could actually work things out. Just as Charles was having a bit of a nibble on Erik’s top lip, which was causing a  _ lovely _ noise to fall from Erik’s mouth as he pressed closer and kissed him more hungrily, a ground-shaking growl echoed throughout the front yard followed by what sounded suspiciously like a Russian cry to battle. 

“Goddammit,” Charles hissed, pulling back from Erik’s deliciously warm mouth and closing his eyes as a headache began to form behind Charles’ eyes as he cast his mind out. “It seems Hank has been holding a grudge against your red-skinned fellow.”

“Ah yes, I remember them fighting that day,” Erik said with a rather loud sigh, and then before Charles knew what was happening was cupping his face in his hands and kissing him quite sinfully, full on the mouth and with a lovely amount of tongue. Charles kissed back for all his worth, fingers grabbing tightly to Erik’s wrists to keep him in place as their lips and tongues and teeth all moved together. 

And then, there was another earth-shaking growl that echoed through the school’s grounds and Charles pushed Erik back, sounding annoyed even to himself as he said, “You get yours, I’ll get mine, and I’ll meet you in the bedroom after?”

Erik moved to kiss him again, teasing out a moan by sucking on Charles’ bottom lip, and his voice was a deep rumble when he said, “I cannot wait.”

**4**

Charles grinned when Erik shut off the bedside lamp before climbing into bed, sliding under the covers and then crossing the mattress so he could press against Charles’ side. He raised an arm so Erik could get close, always more than willing to sleep with Erik in his arms after those few dreadful months of sleeping alone. Even in the time when Erik had been...away, as Charles liked to think of it, he’d never quite gotten re-accustomed to sleeping alone. 

It was good that Erik was back. Not just because Charles slept better with a warm body beside him or curled around him, but that Erik was  _ back.  _ Their differences had seemed so great on that beach, pushing them apart until it felt like there was an uncrossable sea of distance between them, made worse by the silence wrought by that god awful helmet. 

Erik had come back to him, though, and that was truly all that mattered. 

Now, Erik pressed up against his side, slipping under Charles’ arm and pressing a kiss to his chest. Charles opened his mouth to say something when Erik’s teeth dragged over the spot his lips had just softly brushed, pulling a shaking groan from his mouth. Erik smoothed over the spot with his tongue which caused Charles to moan loudly, arm tightening around Erik’s shoulders to keep him close. 

“Good evening, my love,” Charles greeted with shaking breath, giving Erik a sweet kiss and letting him drag it on and turn it into something dirtier. Erik’s hand was sliding low across his stomach, calloused fingers catching at the hair that lined his belly. Charles’ upper body was so, so sensitive, and his skin sang with arousal under Erik’s touch. 

Just as Charles’ hand was sliding down Erik’s back and slowly making its way towards Erik’s ass as Erik kept kissing him sinfully, something piqued the edge of his consciousness. 

Charles pulled himself back just as young Kitty fell through their door, stumbling forward before landing on her knees with a heartbreaking little sniffle. Erik was out of bed in an instant, grabbing his housecoat from where he’d hung it on the bed rail and tying it hastily around his waist before reaching the girl. Charles flopped back onto the bed and sucked in a deep breath as he was assaulted by the young girl’s terror, adding more focus to his shields than he generally bothered within his bedroom. 

Erik reached down and picked her right up, settling her onto his hip with an ease that made Charles just a bit jealous. Pushing himself onto his elbows, Charles cast his mind and looked through Kitty’s thoughts worriedly. “Darling, what’s wrong?” Charles asked as the two of them made their way over to the bed, Erik sitting in the spot he’d only seconds before vacated and moving Kitty onto his lap. 

“I had a bad dream,” Kitty whispered, her mind replaying the dream before Charles was smoothing over her thoughts and tucking the memory of the dream much deeper away. Charles reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze when she said, “I don’t want to be phased forever.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Erik told her comfortingly, rubbing a hand up and down her back. 

“C-can I...” Kitty trailed off, but her request was clear to Charles. 

He smiled as comfortingly as he could and easily said, “Of course you can sleep in here, darling.” To which Kitty’s mind lit up with a bright appreciation as she slumped bonelessly against Erik’s chest and sniffled again. 

“Thank you,” Kitty whispered, and then Erik was getting her settled on the bed between them while Charles lied back down. Erik got the blanket laid out over them after disposing of his housecoat, and Charles worked on soothing Kitty’s mind enough that she’d be able to sleep without even a hint of a bad dream. 

“Goodnight, Kitty, my love,” Charles wished, both echoing their own endearments as Erik projected into his mind the sensation of them sharing their usual goodnight kiss. Charles sent back a wave of warmth and an answering sensation, before he allowed his eyes to fall closed and sleep to claim him. 

**5**

Charles was laying out on the warm grass with the autumn sun beating down his face. There was a cool breeze blowing through the school’s grounds that was keeping him from being too-warm, and all around him he could hear the happy laughter of all the children who stayed at the school year-round. 

There was a smile on his face that he didn’t think was going anywhere for how overly content he felt, letting the sun wash over him as he laid in the grass comfortably, one hand on his stomach and the other behind his head. Casting his mind out, Charles let the cadence of his students' thoughts wash over him, not particularly focused on anyone mind but letting the general murmur soothe him even further. 

A familiar mind entered his sphere of awareness and Charles was unable to keep down his widening grin as Erik made his way towards him. He’d been working on something earlier, down in his workshop, and he’d been stubbornly keeping Charles from knowing what it was. He wouldn’t pry if Erik truly didn‘t want him to, but he had to admit, at least to himself, that was incredibly curious as to what Erik was crafting. 

“Hello, handsome,” Erik greeted, laying out next to Charles on the grass and curling into his side. He smiled even as he raised his arm so Erik could tuck himself under his shoulder more comfortably, wrapping around Erik’s back to keep him close. It was easy to lean down and press a kiss to Erik’s hair, and then the two of them fell into a calm silence. 

This was a moment that Charles would have never dared to hope for or imagine for himself when he was younger. For one, he’d had to awkwardly transfer himself from his chair and down to the grass with a bit of help from Logan, and for another, he was currently laying with the man he loved out in an open field without any fear. Of course times were always changing, but the world was still nowhere near ready to fully embrace his relationship. 

That was something that Charles had long ago accepted, though. As a young queer boy, he had been ready to spend a lifetime hiding himself away. When his mutation developed, it had only pushed that idea further into his mind until he was wearing so many different masks he’d forgotten who he truly was. 

Erik had helped him find himself. Both because the other man loved him, but for all the things they had gone through to get to where they were now. It had been a tough time for them, filled with more hurt than Charles often wished to think of, but they had made it back together in the end. He often thought that was what truly mattered, as everyone had hardships they had to work through and they’d done their best at working through theirs. 

Erik’s hand covered his own on his stomach and he linked their fingers together. Charles smiled and hummed happily, letting Erik’s thoughts wash over him and losing himself in the easy, familiar warmth of his lover’s mind. He wasn’t looking for anything particular, keeping to the feelings rather than concrete thoughts, and was instead just enjoying the warmth of Erik’s mind and how familiar it was even after so many years of them being together. 

“Good afternoon, my love,” Charles finally murmured, words lazy and lips brushing against Erik’s forehead. 

“How are you?”

“Quite well, and you? Your metal project coming along nicely?” Charles asked him with his eyes still closed, sending along a bit of appreciation for Erik’s metalwork which he  _ always  _ loved so much. 

“Come on now, you haven’t looked to see what it is?” Erik’s voice had an edge to it that made it sound slightly less teasing than the words usually would. As Charles held him close he felt a tenseness grow through Erik’s body until he was lying almost rigidly against him. There was clearly something bothering him though Charles had no clue what that was. 

“Darling?” 

“Charles, I...well, I have something that I’ve been wanting to ask you,” Erik’s voice was tinged with an unusual hesitancy. Always such a sure man, hearing Erik sound so hesitant about something was almost disconcerting. Paired with the way he was lying against Charles so stiffly, he was growing worried about just what question Erik seemed to have for him.

Just as Erik was taking a very large breath, a horrible, ear-piercing cry sounded out through the field. Erik was standing before Charles had even fully pushed himself onto his elbows, and without a single moment of hesitation he was off across the field in a light jog towards where John had set a fire in the grass and Bobby was currently trying to put it out. 

Sighing to himself, Charles almost wished he’d taken the chance and looked through Erik’s mind if only to know what he had been so torn up about asking Charles, and mentally called for Logan to help him back into his chair so he could go give those two boys a talking to on what was considered appropriate flirting. 

**+1**

Charles was sitting calmly at his desk and doing some paperwork when Erik  _ stormed  _ into his office, the doors being thrown open quite aggressively by Erik’s metal-bending. He didn’t react to the way the doors bounced off the walls with a loud clang, more than used to the general chaotic energy that often came with running a school filled with super-powered children that were often just starting to try to learn how to control their powers. 

Instead, Charles calmly laid his pen to the side and tried to parse through the angry swirling of Erik’s thoughts and figure out what was bothering him this deeply. He was upset about something,  _ very  _ upset, and was frustrated beyond belief. Charles tried for a soothing smile as the doors behind him slammed back shut and locked with a click that sounded incredibly final. 

Well then. Either Erik was here to break up with him and a dramatic exclamation or...well honestly, Charles had no idea what in heaven’s name was happening. Erik began pacing back and forth along the width of the door, turning sharply on his heel with his laced together in front of him, knuckles white from the pressure he was exerting. 

Goodness. Charles opened his mouth to ask what could possibly be bothering Erik so much that he was projecting a dark, gloomy haze of thoughts that Charles couldn’t separate himself from for how strongly they were echoing about Erik’s mind, but before Charles could get a single word out, Erik had stopped his pacing and was striding forward to slam his fist down on Charles’ desk in an action that seemed  _ incredibly _ dramatic considering it was half-past-two on a Wednesday. 

“I have been trying to do this romantically for months but these damn  _ children _ keep interrupting every moment we have alone and I’ve had it!” Erik’s voice a roaring shout, filled with frustration and anger that echoed through the room along with his horribly projected thoughts. Charles rocked back in his chair and frowned, trying to send out a soothing thought but finding that it was blocked by the steel walls Erik had erected out his mind. 

“Erik?” he tried, but was cut off by a noise of pure aggression that fell past Erik’s lips. 

“Marry me.” Erik all but demanded, slamming a white-metal ring down on Charles’ desk before crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at him crossly, huffing harshly out of his nose like some sort of exhausted horse. 

Both of his eyebrows jumped up his forehead as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened all the while feeling incredibly out of depth, and then finally asked, “Excuse me, but please repeat that?” because certainly, he wasn’t asking Charles to  _ marry him. _

Only, yes, that was what looked  _ very  _ similar to a wedding band on his desk. Erik’s words were repeating numbly through his head, over and over again and filling his mind so completely he couldn’t think of anything else. Well, he couldn’t deny what all the evidence in front of him was pointing towards, could he? Heaven’s, but this was really happening, wasn’t it?

“I’ve been trying to propose to you for months and I’ve absolutely had it with being interrupted. You wanted to run the damn school and they’re  _ your  _ kids that keep interrupting my plans so here we are, Charles. Will you marry me, yes or no?” Erik’s voice cracked on the last word, and for the first time since he’d stormed into Charles’ office he felt something other than aggression rolling from his mind.

Mind-numbing fear wasn’t much better. Charles did his very best to send out a soothing press of his mind even as his thoughts started whirling, times and instances all adding up into what had to be the several attempts that Erik was talking about. He never would have known that Erik’s uncertainty over the last few weeks was from something like  _ this,  _ especially because the man hadn’t said so and had been doing very well at keeping his thoughts private. 

But now that Charles was thinking about it, it was all adding up. 

“The other week in the grass, and then that one lunch where we had tea using my father’s china, and the other night when Jean had that nightmare? You’ve been trying to ask me for that long?”

“Longer,” Erik grumbled, falling back into one of the plush chairs that Charles kept on the other side of his desk and running a hand down his face tiredly. All of a sudden he looked absolutely exhausted, like there was something unbearably heavy weighing him down that he would never be able to carry. 

“Well...I can certainly say this isn’t how I was expecting to be proposed to,” Charles admitted, and then sent over a wave of the overwhelming and achingly gentle love he held for the man sitting in front of him, pressing it all into Erik’s mind as he said, “You foolish man. Of course, I’ll marry you.” Erik let out a sigh of relief, and Charles laughed gently as added, “I will always have married you, Erik. That was never a question.”

Erik stood with a groan and a pop of his knee, and Charles grinned at him as he walked around his desk and bent over to kiss him soundly. With the way their minds were connected he felt Erik lift the ring through the air, and Charles lifted his left hand and helped Erik slide it on without having to break the kiss. Pure relief coursed through him so strongly that Charles was breathless from it and it wasn’t even his emotion. He couldn’t help the way he kissed Erik harder, wanting him to be sure of just how much Charles cared about him. 

“Tonight,” Erik said roughly, their lips still brushing together, “is for us. I’ve rented us a room in town and we have dinner reservations for seven.”

“Cocky,” Charles joked even though it only took a simple thought to find out that Erik had made these plans hoping for the absolute best and expecting the absolute worst. His poor  _ fiancé.  _

“Hopeful,” Erik corrected, and Charles grinned and kissed him again. 

And then, because their reservations weren't for hours yet, kissed him again and again.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on [tumblr](https://lavender-lotion.tumblr.com/)!  
> comments and kudos are much appreciated!


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